Wheeljack (TF2017)
Wheeljack from The Transformers (2017 TV Series). Bio Wheeljack is his own worst enemy. Something of a crackpot inventor, a good half of his creations blow up in his face, and that's just if he's lucky. His constant need to invent increasingly complex devices stems from his desire to improve the Autobots' tech, but as a result he's simultaneously one of the Autobots' greatest assets and problems; for every successful gadget he builds, there's one which requires Ratchet or Hoist to put him (and his lab) back together. But once in a while he strikes gold, which has won him respect from even the Decepticons. He is, however, not a complete nerd. As good as he is in the lab, Wheeljack is just as amazing on the road: there are few stunts he can't pull off, and he loves to show off his driving skills as much as he does his inventions. He is, however, a little less confident when it comes to flying, which he accomplishes using solid-fuel rocket jets in his forearms. History Main Timeline Arc 1 Wheeljack was one of the select Autobots chosen by Optimus Prime to travel aboard the Ark, and ended up in stasis lock for four million years at the base of Mount St. Hilary with the rest of the crew. Once the volcano exploded and the Transformers reactivated, Wheeljack was rebuilt to transform into a rally car. As the Autobots counted their ranks, he apologized to Ratchet for being "the guy you've had to patch up most." |The Beginning| Unfortunately, upon their awakening, the Autobots had already a major problem to deal with; they were in dire need of a fuel source. A solution to the predicament presented itself while the Autobots were discussing it: Bumblebee had made friends with a human, Buster Witwicky, whose father had suggested a means of converting gasoline to Transformer fuel. Wheeljack and the rest of the Autobots rolled out to meet with the humans, only to be caught in a fight with the Decepticons upon meeting them. The battle ended with Sparkplug being abducted by the evil robots. |Power Play| Later, after Sparkplug Witwicky had been retrieved, Wheeljack witnessed the human suffer a heart attack, requiring Ratchet to drive him and his son to the hospital. |The Last Stand| After a battle with the Decepticons, the Autobots were defeated by Shockwave, who took over the Ark and hung the bodies of Wheeljack and his defeated peers from the ceiling. |The New Order| |Repeat Performance| Ratchet was able to reclaim the Ark and began to reactivate the fallen warriors. Wheeljack was the second Autobot after Prowl to be brought back on-line, so that he could aid Ratchet with his technical skills. Wheeljack used the Ark's computers to track down the Guardian droid, reprogrammed by the Decepticons, that was running wild within the ship. Upon finding the droid, Wheeljack discovered that it had been booby-trapped with a thermo-nuclear bomb. |The Wrath of Guardian| He saved the Autobots from total destruction by remote-controlling Optimus Prime's deactivated body and using it to intervene in Grimlock's attempted execution of Guardian, preventing him from blowing them all to smithereens. Guardian fled, and the Autobots began planning on how to defeat him. The droid burst into the medical bay some time later, now intent on detonating the bomb within his body himself. Swoop seemingly sacrificed himself to save his fellow Autobots, and Wheeljack and the others grieved by placing a marking beacon for the lost Dinobot. |The Wrath of Grimlock| Wheeljack accompanied Jazz on a mission to secure a fuel supply for the Autobots. He stayed in the background while Jazz forged an alliance with the human G.B. Blackrock. But when Starscream and Frenzy showed up at the unveiling of Blackrock's new anti-robot cannon, Wheeljack couldn't just sit around. He transformed and blasted Frenzy with magnetic powder, which buried the Decepticon in an avalanche of ferrous materials. Wheeljack was saved from an attack by Starscream when Circuit Breaker brought the Decepticon crashing to the ground. The save was unintentional, however; when Wheeljack thanked the human for her help, she turned her fury on him, blasting him into unconsciousness. |DIS-Integrated Circuits| Post Arc 1 Following the capture and subsequent escape of Ravage from Autobot headquarters, Bumblebee attempted to chase down the Decepticon spy on his own. Bumblebee's signal was soon after detected returning towards the Ark, and Wheeljack headed out to welcome him. He was instead met by Bumblebee's severed arm, delivered by Laserbeak to goad Optimus Prime into a trap. |Crisis of Command| After Bumblebee's rescue, the Autobots detected an unidentified flying Transformer heading towards the Ark, and assumed battle positions to meet him. Wheeljack and the others wound up tangling against mind-controlled Swoop, and found themselves unable to subdue him. Optimus ended the battle by issuing Swoop an order, prompting the rebellious bot to break free of the mind-control. |The Icarus Theory| Following this battle, Wheeljack attended a briefing where the Autobots planned out to corral the other Dinobots on the loose, but did not personally participate in the "Dinobot Hunt." |Dinobot Hunt| Arc 2 To help boost the Autobots' fallen forces, Wheeljack installed the minds of Grapple, Skids, Hoist, Smokescreen, and Tracks into bodies that were created by the Ark. The minds were stored on the Ark in crystals for such an occasion. |Rock and Roll-Out| While perusing Earth's broadcasts, Wheeljack stumbled upon a message being shown on all television channels: a human "supervillain" called Robot-Master was claiming responsibility for the Transformers' presence on Earth, and making terrorist demands. Wheeljack relayed the transmission to Optimus. Via another broadcast, Wheeljack was able to determine the whereabouts of Megatron, who had become idle due to a lack of fuel out in the open. He transferred the necessary coordinates to Optimus's mapping circuitry so that he could lead a team to the Decepticon's location. |I, Robot-Master| At some point, Wheeljack wounded himself while arm-wrestling a Decepticon. Such an injury earned him a talking-to from Ratchet within the repair bay. Later that day, upon learning that Bumblebee had gotten himself cornered by Shockwave, Wheeljack rolled out with the Autobots to come to their diminutive friend's help. |Plight of the Bumblebee| Though tasked with repairing the Ark's stellar drive boosters, Wheeljack forewent his duties when he and Ratchet got it into their heads that they should build Buster a robotic battlesuit. Optimus Prime was unamused upon finding out, and ordered the suit destroyed. Feeling sorry for Buster, Wheeljack and Ratchet agreed to wait a day's time before destroying the armor. They failed in accomplishing this task as well, since Buster stole the suit under cover of night, and wound up destroying it in a battle against Shockwave. Upon discovering his absence, the Autobots rushed out to rescue Buster, happening on him just as Shockwave was readying to squeeze the life out of the boy. Unwilling to stand against the united Autobot forces, Shockwave walked away, leaving the Autobots to escort Buster back to safety. |Robot Buster| The Autobots were visited by Sparkplug, who had curious news regarding his son; Buster was being increasingly plagued by frightful nightmares, and during a somnambulistic episode, had drawn crude design specs for a Transformer. Wheeljack recognized the design immediately as something he himself had been trying to wrap his mind around for some time; an Autobot Combiner. |Devastation Derby| By hooking them both up to a mind-link device, Optimus helped Buster decipher his prophetic visions. Upon awakening, Optimus summoned Wheeljack to begin schematic-work on the Transformers foretold by Buster's Matrix-induced dreams. Wheeljack began designing Superion to Optimus Prime's specifications, though the process through which the components would combine, he admitted, would take him some time to work out. |Second Generation| Wheeljack was among the Autobots who witnessed the debut of Omega Supreme, and he participated in the subsequent attack on the Decepticons' coal strip mine base. Once Bumblebee had extracted combiner technology data from Devastator, Wheeljack and the others retreated. |Command Performances| Upon traveling back to the past from twenty years in the future, Galvatron displaced Optimus Prime, Prowl, and Ratchet to another dimension. Wheeljack was present to witness his leader's sudden vanishment, and was left to believe that he had perished. Wheeljack was later an early casualty of a disastrous attack on Galvatron and his cronies, led by acting Autobot Commander Jetfire. He was not seriously damaged, and was back on his feet in time to see Optimus return and resume command. |Target: 2005| Eventualy, Wheeljack finished creating the Aerialbots. However, all but Silverbolt's minds were incomplete when the Autobots were forced to dispatch them prematurely to deal with a Decepticon attack on Hoover Dam. During this mission, the Aerialbots almost killed a human due to their partial programming. |Aerialbots over America| After the mission, Bombshell had implanted a cerebro-shell in Optimus that, while not controlling him, allowed the Decepticons to tap into the Creation Matrix to create the Stunticons, as Prime was using it to complete the Aerialbots' programming (except Silverbolt). |Heavy Traffic| Later, he aided Optimus Prime in a plan to temporarily fake his own death, in order to teach the Earth-bound Autobots to learn to cope without him. Wheeljack was the only Autobot Prime told of his plan, probably since Prime needed him to build a facsimile construct in his likeness to be destroyed. |Prey| He somberly watched as his fellow Autobots gathered up the remains of "Optimus Prime," and was comforted by Ratchet before driving back to Autobot headquarters. |...The Harder They Die| A funeral was held for the Autobots' fallen leader, attended by all. At least, until Optimus spontaneously reappeared on Earth standing atop his headstone, and the whole matter was quickly forgotten. |Resurrection| Optimus began to suspect that the Decepticons were anticipating the Autobots' plans a bit too well, and had Wheeljack check his circuitry for any irregularities. Sure enough, Wheeljack found a cerebro-shell inside Optimus's head and removed it. Using some of his technical wizardry, Wheeljack then reversed the shell's audio-feed, allowing him to listen in on the Decepticons. The Autobots learned that their enemies were heading out to attack a hydro-thermocline plant, and Optimus led a team out to confront them. |Afterdeath| After Optimus Prime died for real, Wheeljack was one of the several Autobots who watched on as Ratchet futilely tried to repair his body. Once the Autobot leader was declared irreparable, the Autobots held a funeral service for their leader, and launched his remains into space. |Funeral for a Friend| Arc 3 Trypticon attacked the Ark as the Autobots were choosing their new leader. Wheeljack was among the many whose motor skills were inhibited by sonic-scrambler mines launched by the behemoth. Following the battle, the Autobots chose Grimlock as their new leader. |King of the Hill| Like Prime before him, Grimlock relied heavily on Wheeljack's skills. Wheeljack tracked down the missing power booster rod. |Mechanical Difficulties| Afterwards, Wheeljack supervised the construction of the Geothermal Generator. By the time the device was complete, Wheeljack was beginning to have serious doubts about Grimlock's leadership, noting to himself that their leader's behavior since becoming leader. |Used Autobots| By the time the Ark was repaired and ready for launching, Wheeljack was wondering if he shouldn't be helping the mutinous Blaster out, rather than assisting Grimlock's efforts to capture him. |Child's Play| These doubts soon grew into a covert rebellion, as he called in his old friend Sky Lynx to help deal with the situation. Wheeljack acted as the Ark's pilot, once it was spaceborne. He enabled the craft to overtake and capture the Decepticon Blast Off, who was under Blaster's control. When Blast Off's passengers turned out to be nothing more than four human children, he advised the other Autobots that they could probably lower their weapons. Wheeljack did his best to make the four humans welcome and comfortable, fitting them with customized space suits, but soon ran up against Grimlock's monomaniacal quest to bring Blaster to "justice". When Grimlock ordered the humans cast into space in hopes of drawing out Blaster, Wheeljack had Sky Lynx save them. Though the humans were safe, Grimlock captured Blaster anyway, and Wheeljack's attempt at subversion ultimately failed. |Spacehikers| Wheeljack was among the dozens of Autobots who gathered on the moon to watch Blaster and Grimlock battle for Autobot leadership, and subsequently came under Decepticon attack. |Totaled| Optimus Prime eventually returned from the dead, and retook command of his forces on Earth. Wheeljack was among those assembled when Fortress Maximus, Grimlock, and Optimus held a conference to discuss the threat of the time-displaced Galvatron on Earth. Though the Autobots planned to attack Galvatron's headquarters, the operation was postponed by the sudden arrival of several Autobots from the year 2009, including Wheeljack. Through their efforts, all time-travelers were eventually sent back to their appropriate eras. |Time Wars| Future Timelines Target: 2005 This Wheeljack is from a future where events similar to the original The Transformers: the Movie occurred. Arc 3 Wheeljack survived the battle of Autobot City in this timeline, but was later strung up by Quintessons there in 2007, anyway. He wasn't seen after that, though Blaster survived the same treatment, so Wheeljack may have survived. |Space Pirates| Trivia *Christopher Swindle reprises his role as Wheeljack. Changes *The episode form of Target: 2006 was renamed Target: 2005, and all references to 2006 were also changed to accomodate. *Originally, Optimus Prime wiped the Aerialbots' minds clean after their first mission, even Silverbolt's. You can imagine why that was replaced by Optimus using the Matrix to complete the other Aerialbots' programming. *In Prey!, Wheeljack is among the Autobots who think Optimus Prime is actually dead, despite his involvement in the facade. *Exactly which Autobots got shunted off to limbo in Time Wars changes. While Optimus Prime, Blaster, and Highbrow are still victims; the other half includes Ironhide, Wheeljack, and Hoist. Category:Articles by Trachodon56 Category:Characters Category:Males Category:Autobots Category:The Transformers (2017 TV Series) Category:The Transformers (2017 TV Series) Characters Category:The Transformers (2017 TV Series) Autobots Category:Ark Crew